Biological membranes have distinct geometries that confer specific functions. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the phenomenological geometry/function correlations remain elusive. We studied the effect of membrane geometry on the localization of membrane-bound proteins. Quantitative comparative experiments between the two most abundant cellular membrane geometries, spherical and cylindrical, revealed that geometry regulates the spatial segregation of proteins. The measured geometry-driven segregation reached 50-fold for membranes of the same mean curvature, demonstrating a crucial and hitherto unaccounted contribution by Gaussian curvature. Molecular-field theory calculations elucidated the underlying physical and molecular mechanisms. Our results reveal that distinct membrane geometries have specific physicochemical properties and thus establish a ubiquitous mechanistic foundation for unravelling the conserved correlations between biological function and membrane polymorphism.

中文翻译：

---

膜几何形状如何独立于平均曲率调节蛋白质分选。

生物膜具有赋予特定功能的独特几何形状。然而，现象学几何学/功能相关性的分子机制仍然难以捉摸。我们研究了膜几何形状对膜结合蛋白定位的影响。两种最丰富的细胞膜几何形状（球形和圆柱形）之间的定量比较实验表明，几何形状调节蛋白质的空间分离。对于相同平均曲率的膜，测量的几何形状驱动的偏析达到了50倍，证明了高斯曲率的关键性和迄今无法解释的贡献。分子场理论计算阐明了潜在的物理和分子机理。